12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory?

- Stack Overflow

How do I list all files of a directory?

Asked 12 years ago Modified 2 months ago Viewed 6.9m times

This question's answers are a community effort. Edit existing answers to improve this post. It is

3467 not currently accepting new answers or interactions.

How can I list all files of a directory in Python and add them to a list ?

1265
python directory

Share Follow edited Oct 22, 2017 at 2:35 asked Jul 8, 2010 at 19:31
0_ duhhunjonn
9,371 10 71 105 44k 11 27 15

27 Related to How to get a list of subdirectories – rds Jan 5, 2012 at 9:32

Comments disabled on deleted / locked posts / reviews

Sorted by:
Trending sort available
21 Answers
Highest score (default)

os.listdir() returns everything inside a directory -- including both files and directories.

5846 os.path 's isfile() can be used to only list files:

from os import listdir

from os.path import isfile, join
onlyfiles = [f for f in listdir(mypath) if isfile(join(mypath, f))]

Alternatively, os.walk() yields two lists for each directory it visits -- one for files and one
for dirs. If you only want the top directory you can break the first time it yields:

from os import walk

f = []
for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in walk(mypath):
f.extend(filenames)
break

or, shorter:

from
Join Stack os import
Overflow walk
to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.
filenames = next(walk(mypath), (None, None, []))[2] # [] if no file

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 1/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

Share Improve this answer edited Apr 19 at 1:55 answered Jul 8, 2010 at 21:01

Follow Mateen Ulhaq pycruft

21.7k 16 83 123 61.8k 1 17 11

125 A bit simpler: (_, _, filenames) = walk(mypath).next() (if you are confident that the walk
will return at least one value, which it should.) – misterbee Jul 14, 2013 at 20:56

11 Slight modification to store full paths: for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(mypath):
checksum_files.extend(os.path.join(dirpath, filename) for filename in filenames) break – okigan Sep
23, 2013 at 21:31

186 f.extend(filenames) is not actually equivalent to f = f + filenames . extend will modify

f in-place, whereas adding creates a new list in a new memory location. This means extend is
generally more efficient than + , but it can sometimes lead to confusion if multiple objects hold
references to the list. Lastly, it's worth noting that f += filenames is equivalent to
f.extend(filenames) , not f = f + filenames . – Benjamin Hodgson Oct 22, 2013 at 8:55

42 @misterbee, your solution is the best, just one small improvement: _, _, filenames =
next(walk(mypath), (None, None, [])) – bgusach Mar 5, 2015 at 7:36

6 f += filenames is equivalent to extend and not the other way around??? Jeez. – Umagon Jul 12,
2020 at 9:18

I prefer using the glob module, as it does pattern matching and expansion.

2338 import glob

print(glob.glob("/home/adam/*"))

It does pattern matching intuitively

import glob
# All files and directories ending with .txt and that don't begin with a dot:
print(glob.glob("/home/adam/*.txt"))
# All files and directories ending with .txt with depth of 2 folders, ignoring
names beginning with a dot:
print(glob.glob("/home/adam/*/*.txt"))

It will return a list with the queried files and directories:

['/home/adam/file1.txt', '/home/adam/file2.txt', .... ]

Note that glob ignores files and directories that begin with a dot . , as those are considered
hidden files and directories, unless the pattern is something like .* .

Use glob.escape to escape strings that are not meant to be patterns:

print(glob.glob(glob.escape(directory_name) + "/*.txt"))
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 2/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

Share Improve this answer edited Jan 11 at 13:56 answered Jul 9, 2010 at 18:13

Follow Flimm adamk

118k 38 229 244 42.9k 7 49 56

20 that's a shortcut for listdir+fnmatch docs.python.org/library/fnmatch.html#fnmatch.fnmatch – Stefano

Jul 1, 2011 at 13:03

53 to clarify, this does not return the "full path"; it simply returns the expansion of the glob, whatever it
may be. E.g., given /home/user/foo/bar/hello.txt , then, if running in directory foo , the
glob("bar/*.txt") will return bar/hello.txt . There are cases when you do in fact want the full
(i.e., absolute) path; for those cases, see stackoverflow.com/questions/51520/… – michael Aug 16,
2016 at 12:07

1 Related: find files recursively with glob: stackoverflow.com/a/2186565/4561887 – Gabriel Staples Sep
3, 2018 at 3:25

11 doesn't answer this question. glob.glob("*") would. – Jean-François Fabre ♦ May 17, 2019 at
18:36

2 Is there a way to ensure the items returned from glob are only files? I ask regarding the instance
where files could exist without extensions (or other scenarios where files and folders are
indistinguishable purely from their path strings). I note this is an appropriate clarification here as the
OP did not specify whether or not their files have extensions on them. – aamailhot Aug 11, 2021 at
21:57

list in the current directory

1443 With listdir in os module you get the files and the folders in the current dir

import os

arr = os.listdir()

Looking in a directory

arr = os.listdir('c:\\files')

with glob you can specify a type of file to list like this

import glob

txtfiles = []
for file in glob.glob("*.txt"):
txtfiles.append(file)

or

mylist = [f for f in glob.glob("*.txt")]

Join Stack
get Overflow to find
the full path the files
of only best in
answer to yourdirectory
the current technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 3/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

import os
from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join

cwd = os.getcwd()
onlyfiles = [os.path.join(cwd, f) for f in os.listdir(cwd) if
os.path.isfile(os.path.join(cwd, f))]
print(onlyfiles)

['G:\\getfilesname\\getfilesname.py', 'G:\\getfilesname\\example.txt']

Getting the full path name with os.path.abspath

You get the full path in return

import os
files_path = [os.path.abspath(x) for x in os.listdir()]
print(files_path)

['F:\\documenti\applications.txt', 'F:\\documenti\collections.txt']

Walk: going through sub directories

os.walk returns the root, the directories list and the files list, that is why I unpacked them in r,
d, f in the for loop; it, then, looks for other files and directories in the subfolders of the root
and so on until there are no subfolders.

import os

# Getting the current work directory (cwd)

thisdir = os.getcwd()

# r=root, d=directories, f = files

for r, d, f in os.walk(thisdir):
for file in f:
if file.endswith(".docx"):
print(os.path.join(r, file))

To go up in the directory tree

# Method 1
x = os.listdir('..')

# Method 2
x= os.listdir('/')

Get files of a particular subdirectory with os.listdir()

import os

x = os.listdir("./content")

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer os.walk('.')
theirs. - current directory

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 4/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

import os
arr = next(os.walk('.'))[2]
print(arr)

>>> ['5bs_Turismo1.pdf', '5bs_Turismo1.pptx', 'esperienza.txt']

next(os.walk('.')) and os.path.join('dir', 'file')

import os
arr = []
for d,r,f in next(os.walk("F:\\_python")):
for file in f:
arr.append(os.path.join(r,file))

for f in arr:
print(files)

>>> F:\\_python\\dict_class.py
>>> F:\\_python\\programmi.txt

next... walk

[os.path.join(r,file) for r,d,f in next(os.walk("F:\\_python")) for file in f]

>>> ['F:\\_python\\dict_class.py', 'F:\\_python\\programmi.txt']

os.walk

x = [os.path.join(r,file) for r,d,f in os.walk("F:\\_python") for file in f]

print(x)

>>> ['F:\\_python\\dict.py', 'F:\\_python\\progr.txt', 'F:\\_python\\readl.py']

os.listdir() - get only txt files

arr_txt = [x for x in os.listdir() if x.endswith(".txt")]

Using glob to get the full path of the files

from path import path

from glob import glob

x = [path(f).abspath() for f in glob("F:\\*.txt")]

Using os.path.isfile to avoid directories in the list

import os.path
listOfFiles = [f for f in os.listdir() if os.path.isfile(f)]

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer Using
theirs. pathlib from Python 3.4

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 5/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

import pathlib

flist = []
for p in pathlib.Path('.').iterdir():
if p.is_file():
print(p)
flist.append(p)

With list comprehension :

flist = [p for p in pathlib.Path('.').iterdir() if p.is_file()]

Use glob method in pathlib.Path()

import pathlib

py = pathlib.Path().glob("*.py")

Get all and only files with os.walk: checks only in the third element returned, i.e. the list of the
files

import os
x = [i[2] for i in os.walk('.')]
y=[]
for t in x:
for f in t:
y.append(f)

Get only files with next in a directory: returns only the file in the root folder

import os
x = next(os.walk('F://python'))[2]

Get only directories with next and walk in a directory, because in the [1] element there are the
folders only

import os
next(os.walk('F://python'))[1] # for the current dir use ('.')

>>> ['python3','others']

Get all the subdir names with walk

for r,d,f in os.walk("F:\\_python"):

for dirs in d:
print(dirs)

os.scandir() from Python 3.5 and greater

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 6/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

import os
x = [f.name for f in os.scandir() if f.is_file()]

# Another example with `scandir` (a little variation from docs.python.org)

# This one is more efficient than `os.listdir`.
# In this case, it shows the files only in the current directory
# where the script is executed.

import os
with os.scandir() as i:
for entry in i:
if entry.is_file():
print(entry.name)

Share Improve this answer edited Apr 12 at 17:41 answered Jan 3, 2017 at 15:36
Follow xxx PythonProgrammi
1,079 11 22 20.5k 3 37 34

93 This is a mish-mash of too many answers to questions not asked here. It may also be worth explaining
what the caveats or recommended approaches are. I'm no better off knowing one way versus 20 ways
to do the same thing unless I also know which is more appropriate to use when. – cs95 Jan 27, 2020 at
9:27

3 Ok, ASAP I will take a look at my answer and try to make it more clean and with more useful
informations about the difference among the methods etc. – PythonProgrammi Jan 29, 2020 at 19:56

1 You should not determine file's extension by checking if the filename contains a substring. That might
cause many troubles. I recommend to always check if the filename ends with the particular substring.
– ni1ight Mar 2, 2020 at 14:38

4 Such compilations can be helpful, but this answer in particular adds no value to the existing answers.
Just to give an example, [f for f in glob.glob("*.txt")] is equivalent to
glob.glob("*.txt") and warrants no extra section in this write up. It is also very wordy and with
lots of spacing. An improvement could be made by adding explanations or pointing out differences
instead of listing yet another variant. – Turun Ambartanen Oct 12, 2020 at 10:20

1 Thanks for the comment, you are right of course and I will follow your advises asap to make it more
useful, maybe in these years I could make some better ansewers. Just give me some days to re-
elaborate it. – PythonProgrammi Oct 15, 2020 at 11:07

import os
os.listdir("somedirectory")
952
will return a list of all files and directories in "somedirectory".

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Jul 13, 2016 at 19:05 answered Jul 8, 2010 at 19:35
csano sepp2k
12.8k 2 26 44 355k 52 664 669

12 This returns the relative path of the files, as compared with the full path returned by glob.glob – xji
May 17, 2016 at 14:32
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
25 @JIXiang: os.listdir() always returns mere filenames (not relative paths). What glob.glob()
answer theirs.
returns is driven by the path format of the input pattern. – mklement0 Nov 30, 2016 at 18:14
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 7/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

A one-line solution to get only list of files (no subdirectories):

185 filenames = next(os.walk(path))[2]

or absolute pathnames:

paths = [os.path.join(path, fn) for fn in next(os.walk(path))[2]]

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Sep 22, 2019 at 20:40 answered Jan 18, 2014 at 17:42
ohe Remi
3,259 3 25 47 19.6k 8 54 41

7 Only a one-liner if you've already import os . Seems less concise than glob() to me.
– ArtOfWarfare Nov 28, 2014 at 20:22

4 problem with glob is that a folder called 'something.something' would be returned by

glob('/home/adam/*.*') – Remi Dec 1, 2014 at 9:08

6 On OS X, there's something called a bundle. It's a directory which should generally be treated as a file
(like a .tar). Would you want those treated as a file or a directory? Using glob() would treat it as a file.
Your method would treat it as a directory. – ArtOfWarfare Dec 1, 2014 at 19:44

Getting Full File Paths From a Directory and All Its Subdirectories

152 import os

def get_filepaths(directory):
"""
This function will generate the file names in a directory
tree by walking the tree either top-down or bottom-up. For each
directory in the tree rooted at directory top (including top itself),
it yields a 3-tuple (dirpath, dirnames, filenames).
"""
file_paths = [] # List which will store all of the full filepaths.

# Walk the tree.

for root, directories, files in os.walk(directory):
for filename in files:
# Join the two strings in order to form the full filepath.
filepath = os.path.join(root, filename)
file_paths.append(filepath) # Add it to the list.

return file_paths # Self-explanatory.

# Run the above function and store its results in a variable.

full_file_paths = get_filepaths("/Users/johnny/Desktop/TEST")

The path I provided in the above function contained 3 files— two of them in the root
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
directory, and another in a subfolder called "SUBFOLDER." You can now do things
Sign uplike:
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 8/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

print full_file_paths which will print the list:

['/Users/johnny/Desktop/TEST/file1.txt',
'/Users/johnny/Desktop/TEST/file2.txt',
'/Users/johnny/Desktop/TEST/SUBFOLDER/file3.dat']

If you'd like, you can open and read the contents, or focus only on files with the extension
".dat" like in the code below:

for f in full_file_paths:
if f.endswith(".dat"):
print f

/Users/johnny/Desktop/TEST/SUBFOLDER/file3.dat

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Sep 26, 2019 at 2:29 answered Oct 11, 2013 at 0:55
Johnny
2,028 1 13 10

Since version 3.4 there are builtin iterators for this which are a lot more efficient than
os.listdir() :
97
pathlib : New in version 3.4.

>>> import pathlib

>>> [p for p in pathlib.Path('.').iterdir() if p.is_file()]

According to PEP 428, the aim of the pathlib library is to provide a simple hierarchy of
classes to handle filesystem paths and the common operations users do over them.

os.scandir() : New in version 3.5.

>>> import os
>>> [entry for entry in os.scandir('.') if entry.is_file()]

Note that os.walk() uses os.scandir() instead of os.listdir() from version 3.5, and its
speed got increased by 2-20 times according to PEP 471.

Let me also recommend reading ShadowRanger's comment below.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 23, 2018 at 18:41 answered Jun 18, 2015 at 20:58
Peter Mortensen SzieberthAdam
30k 21 100 124 3,750 1 21 31

1 Thanks! I think it is the only solution not returning directly a list . Could use p.name instead of the
first p alternatively if preferred. – jeromej Jun 22, 2015 at 12:36
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
1 Welcome! I would prefer generating pathlib.Path() instances since they have many Sign
useful
up
answer theirs.
methods I would not want to waste waste. You can also call str(p) on them for path names.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 9/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

– SzieberthAdam Jul 13, 2015 at 14:56

7 Note: The os.scandir solution is going to be more efficient than os.listdir with an
os.path.is_file check or the like, even if you need a list (so you don't benefit from lazy
iteration), because os.scandir uses OS provided APIs that give you the is_file information for
free as it iterates, no per-file round trip to the disk to stat them at all (on Windows, the DirEntry s
get you complete stat info for free, on *NIX systems it needs to stat for info beyond is_file ,
is_dir , etc., but DirEntry caches on first stat for convenience). – ShadowRanger Nov 20, 2015
at 22:38

1 You can also use entry.name to get only the file name, or entry.path to get its full path. No more
os.path.join() all over the place. – user136036 Mar 28, 2017 at 20:26

Preliminary notes

65 Although there's a clear differentiation between file and directory terms in the question
text, some may argue that directories are actually special files

The statement: "all files of a directory" can be interpreted in two ways:

1. All direct (or level 1) descendants only

2. All descendants in the whole directory tree (including the ones in sub-directories)

When the question was asked, I imagine that Python 2, was the LTS version, however the
code samples will be run by Python 3(.5) (I'll keep them as Python 2 compliant as
possible; also, any code belonging to Python that I'm going to post, is from v3.5.4 -
unless otherwise specified). That has consequences related to another keyword in the
question: "add them into a list":

In pre Python 2.2 versions, sequences (iterables) were mostly represented by lists
(tuples, sets, ...)

In Python 2.2, the concept of generator ([Python.Wiki]: Generators) - courtesy of

[Python 3]: The yield statement) - was introduced. As time passed, generator
counterparts started to appear for functions that returned/worked with lists

In Python 3, generator is the default behavior

Not sure if returning a list is still mandatory (or a generator would do as well), but
passing a generator to the list constructor, will create a list out of it (and also
consume it). The example below illustrates the differences on [Python 3]:
map(function, iterable, ...)

>>> import sys

>>> sys.version
'2.7.10 (default, Mar 8 2016, 15:02:46) [MSC v.1600 64 bit (AMD64)]'
>>> m = map(lambda x: x, [1, 2, 3]) # Just a dummy lambda function
>>> m, type(m)
([1, 2, 3], <type 'list'>)
>>> len(m)
3

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 10/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

>>> import sys

>>> sys.version
'3.5.4 (v3.5.4:3f56838, Aug 8 2017, 02:17:05) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)]'
>>> m = map(lambda x: x, [1, 2, 3])
>>> m, type(m)
(<map object at 0x000001B4257342B0>, <class 'map'>)
>>> len(m)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: object of type 'map' has no len()
>>> lm0 = list(m) # Build a list from the generator
>>> lm0, type(lm0)
([1, 2, 3], <class 'list'>)
>>>
>>> lm1 = list(m) # Build a list from the same generator
>>> lm1, type(lm1) # Empty list now - generator already consumed
([], <class 'list'>)

The examples will be based on a directory called root_dir with the following structure (this
example is for Win, but I'm using the same tree on Lnx as well):

E:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q003207219>tree /f "root_dir"
Folder PATH listing for volume Work
Volume serial number is 00000029 3655:6FED
E:\WORK\DEV\STACKOVERFLOW\Q003207219\ROOT_DIR
¦ file0
¦ file1
¦
+---dir0
¦ +---dir00
¦ ¦ ¦ file000
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +---dir000
¦ ¦ file0000
¦ ¦
¦ +---dir01
¦ ¦ file010
¦ ¦ file011
¦ ¦
¦ +---dir02
¦ +---dir020
¦ +---dir0200
+---dir1
¦ file10
¦ file11
¦ file12
¦
+---dir2
¦ ¦ file20
¦ ¦
¦ +---dir20
¦ file200
¦
+---dir3

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Solutions Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 11/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

Programmatic approaches:

1. [Python 3]: os.listdir(path='.')

Return a list containing the names of the entries in the directory given by path.
The list is in arbitrary order, and does not include the special entries '.' and
'..' ...

>>> import os
>>> root_dir = "root_dir" # Path relative to current dir (os.getcwd())
>>>
>>> os.listdir(root_dir) # List all the items in root_dir
['dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'dir3', 'file0', 'file1']
>>>
>>> [item for item in os.listdir(root_dir) if
os.path.isfile(os.path.join(root_dir, item))] # Filter items and only keep
files (strip out directories)
['file0', 'file1']

A more elaborate example (code_os_listdir.py):

import os
from pprint import pformat

def _get_dir_content(path, include_folders, recursive):

entries = os.listdir(path)
for entry in entries:
entry_with_path = os.path.join(path, entry)
if os.path.isdir(entry_with_path):
if include_folders:
yield entry_with_path
if recursive:
for sub_entry in _get_dir_content(entry_with_path,
include_folders, recursive):
yield sub_entry
else:
yield entry_with_path

def get_dir_content(path, include_folders=True, recursive=True,

prepend_folder_name=True):
path_len = len(path) + len(os.path.sep)
for item in _get_dir_content(path, include_folders, recursive):
yield item if prepend_folder_name else item[path_len:]

def _get_dir_content_old(path, include_folders, recursive):

entries = os.listdir(path)
ret = list()
for entry in entries:
entry_with_path = os.path.join(path, entry)
if os.path.isdir(entry_with_path):
if include_folders:
ret.append(entry_with_path)
if recursive:
Join Stack Overflow to find theret.extend(_get_dir_content_old(entry_with_path,
best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.
include_folders, recursive))

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 12/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
else:
ret.append(entry_with_path)
return ret

def get_dir_content_old(path, include_folders=True, recursive=True,

prepend_folder_name=True):
path_len = len(path) + len(os.path.sep)
return [item if prepend_folder_name else item[path_len:] for item in
_get_dir_content_old(path, include_folders, recursive)]

def main():
root_dir = "root_dir"
ret0 = get_dir_content(root_dir, include_folders=True, recursive=True,
prepend_folder_name=True)
lret0 = list(ret0)
print(ret0, len(lret0), pformat(lret0))
ret1 = get_dir_content_old(root_dir, include_folders=False, recursive=True,
prepend_folder_name=False)
print(len(ret1), pformat(ret1))

if __name__ == "__main__":
main()

Notes:

There are two implementations:

One that uses generators (of course here it seems useless, since I immediately
convert the result to a list)

The classic one (function names ending in _old)

Recursion is used (to get into subdirectories)

For each implementation there are two functions:

One that starts with an underscore (_): "private" (should not be called directly) -
that does all the work

The public one (wrapper over previous): it just strips off the initial path (if
required) from the returned entries. It's an ugly implementation, but it's the only
idea that I could come with at this point

In terms of performance, generators are generally a little bit faster (considering both
creation and iteration times), but I didn't test them in recursive functions, and also I
am iterating inside the function over inner generators - don't know how performance
friendly is that

Play with the arguments to get different results

Output:

(py35x64_test)
E:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q003207219>"e:\Work\Dev\VEnvs\py35x64_test\Scripts\py
"code_os_listdir.py"
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
<generator object get_dir_content at 0x000001BDDBB3DF10> 22 ['root_dir\\dir0',
answer theirs. 'root_dir\\dir0\\dir00',

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 13/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir00\\dir000',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir00\\dir000\\file0000',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir00\\file000',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir01',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir01\\file010',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir01\\file011',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir02',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir02\\dir020',
'root_dir\\dir0\\dir02\\dir020\\dir0200',
'root_dir\\dir1',
'root_dir\\dir1\\file10',
'root_dir\\dir1\\file11',
'root_dir\\dir1\\file12',
'root_dir\\dir2',
'root_dir\\dir2\\dir20',
'root_dir\\dir2\\dir20\\file200',
'root_dir\\dir2\\file20',
'root_dir\\dir3',
'root_dir\\file0',
'root_dir\\file1']
11 ['dir0\\dir00\\dir000\\file0000',
'dir0\\dir00\\file000',
'dir0\\dir01\\file010',
'dir0\\dir01\\file011',
'dir1\\file10',
'dir1\\file11',
'dir1\\file12',
'dir2\\dir20\\file200',
'dir2\\file20',
'file0',
'file1']

2. [Python 3]: os.scandir(path='.') (Python 3.5+, backport: [PyPI]: scandir)

Return an iterator of os.DirEntry objects corresponding to the entries in the

directory given by path. The entries are yielded in arbitrary order, and the special
entries '.' and '..' are not included.
Using scandir() instead of listdir() can significantly increase the performance of
code that also needs file type or file attribute information, because os.DirEntry
objects expose this information if the operating system provides it when
scanning a directory. All os.DirEntry methods may perform a system call, but
is_dir() and is_file() usually only require a system call for symbolic links;
os.DirEntry.stat() always requires a system call on Unix but only requires one for
symbolic links on Windows.

>>> import os
>>> root_dir = os.path.join(".", "root_dir") # Explicitly prepending current
directory
>>> root_dir
'.\\root_dir'
Join Stack Overflow
>>> to find the best answer to your technical question, help others Sign up
answer theirs. >>> scandir_iterator = os.scandir(root_dir)

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 14/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
>>> scandir_iterator
<nt.ScandirIterator object at 0x00000268CF4BC140>
>>> [item.path for item in scandir_iterator]
['.\\root_dir\\dir0', '.\\root_dir\\dir1', '.\\root_dir\\dir2',
'.\\root_dir\\dir3', '.\\root_dir\\file0', '.\\root_dir\\file1']
>>>
>>> [item.path for item in scandir_iterator] # Will yield an empty list as it
was consumed by previous iteration (automatically performed by the list
comprehension)
[]
>>>
>>> scandir_iterator = os.scandir(root_dir) # Reinitialize the generator
>>> for item in scandir_iterator :
... if os.path.isfile(item.path):
... print(item.name)
...
file0
file1

Notes:

It's similar to os.listdir

But it's also more flexible (and offers more functionality), more Pythonic (and in some
cases, faster)

3. [Python 3]: os.walk(top, topdown=True, onerror=None, followlinks=False)

Generate the file names in a directory tree by walking the tree either top-down
or bottom-up. For each directory in the tree rooted at directory top (including top
itself), it yields a 3-tuple ( dirpath , dirnames , filenames ).

>>> import os
>>> root_dir = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "root_dir") # Specify the full path
>>> root_dir
'E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir'
>>>
>>> walk_generator = os.walk(root_dir)
>>> root_dir_entry = next(walk_generator) # First entry corresponds to the
root dir (passed as an argument)
>>> root_dir_entry
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir', ['dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2',
'dir3'], ['file0', 'file1'])
>>>
>>> root_dir_entry[1] + root_dir_entry[2] # Display dirs and files (direct
descendants) in a single list
['dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'dir3', 'file0', 'file1']
>>>
>>> [os.path.join(root_dir_entry[0], item) for item in root_dir_entry[1] +
root_dir_entry[2]] # Display all the entries in the previous list by their
full path
['E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0',
'E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir1',
'E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir2',
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
'E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir3', Sign up
answer theirs. 'E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\file0',

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 15/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
'E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\file1']
>>>
>>> for entry in walk_generator: # Display the rest of the elements
(corresponding to every subdir)
... print(entry)
...
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0', ['dir00', 'dir01',
'dir02'], [])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0\\dir00', ['dir000'],
['file000'])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0\\dir00\\dir000', [],
['file0000'])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0\\dir01', [],
['file010', 'file011'])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0\\dir02', ['dir020'],
[])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0\\dir02\\dir020',
['dir0200'], [])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir0\\dir02\\dir020\\dir0
[], [])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir1', [], ['file10',
'file11', 'file12'])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir2', ['dir20'],
['file20'])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir2\\dir20', [],
['file200'])
('E:\\Work\\Dev\\StackOverflow\\q003207219\\root_dir\\dir3', [], [])

Notes:

Under the scenes, it uses os.scandir ( os.listdir on older versions)

It does the heavy lifting by recurring in subfolders

4. [Python 3]: glob.glob(pathname, *, recursive=False) ([Python 3]: glob.iglob(pathname, *,

recursive=False))

Return a possibly-empty list of path names that match pathname, which must be
a string containing a path specification. pathname can be either absolute (like
/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile ) or relative (like ../../Tools/*/*.gif ), and can
contain shell-style wildcards. Broken symlinks are included in the results (as in
the shell).
...
Changed in version 3.5: Support for recursive globs using “ ** ”.

>>> import glob, os

>>> wildcard_pattern = "*"
>>> root_dir = os.path.join("root_dir", wildcard_pattern) # Match every
file/dir name
>>> root_dir
'root_dir\\*'
Join Stack Overflow
>>> to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
>>> glob_list = glob.glob(root_dir) Sign up
answer theirs.
>>> glob_list
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 16/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
['root_dir\\dir0', 'root_dir\\dir1', 'root_dir\\dir2', 'root_dir\\dir3',
'root_dir\\file0', 'root_dir\\file1']
>>>
>>> [item.replace("root_dir" + os.path.sep, "") for item in glob_list] # Strip
the dir name and the path separator from begining
['dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'dir3', 'file0', 'file1']
>>>
>>> for entry in glob.iglob(root_dir + "*", recursive=True):
... print(entry)
...
root_dir\
root_dir\dir0
root_dir\dir0\dir00
root_dir\dir0\dir00\dir000
root_dir\dir0\dir00\dir000\file0000
root_dir\dir0\dir00\file000
root_dir\dir0\dir01
root_dir\dir0\dir01\file010
root_dir\dir0\dir01\file011
root_dir\dir0\dir02
root_dir\dir0\dir02\dir020
root_dir\dir0\dir02\dir020\dir0200
root_dir\dir1
root_dir\dir1\file10
root_dir\dir1\file11
root_dir\dir1\file12
root_dir\dir2
root_dir\dir2\dir20
root_dir\dir2\dir20\file200
root_dir\dir2\file20
root_dir\dir3
root_dir\file0
root_dir\file1

Notes:

Uses os.listdir

For large trees (especially if recursive is on), iglob is preferred

Allows advanced filtering based on name (due to the wildcard)

5. [Python 3]: class pathlib.Path(*pathsegments) (Python 3.4+, backport: [PyPI]: pathlib2)

>>> import pathlib

>>> root_dir = "root_dir"
>>> root_dir_instance = pathlib.Path(root_dir)
>>> root_dir_instance
WindowsPath('root_dir')
>>> root_dir_instance.name
'root_dir'
>>> root_dir_instance.is_dir()
True
>>>
>>> [item.name for item in root_dir_instance.glob("*")] # Wildcard searching
for all direct descendants
['dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'dir3', 'file0', 'file1']
>>>
Join Stack Overflow
>>> to find the best answer to your technical
[os.path.join(item.parent.name, question,for
item.name) helpitem
others
in
root_dir_instance.glob("*") if not item.is_dir()] # Display paths Sign(including
up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 17/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
parent) for files only
['root_dir\\file0', 'root_dir\\file1']

Notes:

This is one way of achieving our goal

It's the OOP style of handling paths

Offers lots of functionalities

6. [Python 2]: dircache.listdir(path) (Python 2 only)

But, according to [GitHub]: python/cpython - (2.7) cpython/Lib/dircache.py, it's just a

(thin) wrapper over os.listdir with caching

def listdir(path):
"""List directory contents, using cache."""
try:
cached_mtime, list = cache[path]
del cache[path]
except KeyError:
cached_mtime, list = -1, []
mtime = os.stat(path).st_mtime
if mtime != cached_mtime:
list = os.listdir(path)
list.sort()
cache[path] = mtime, list
return list

7. [man7]: OPENDIR(3) / [man7]: READDIR(3) / [man7]: CLOSEDIR(3) via [Python 3]: ctypes -
A foreign function library for Python (POSIX specific)

ctypes is a foreign function library for Python. It provides C compatible data

types, and allows calling functions in DLLs or shared libraries. It can be used to
wrap these libraries in pure Python.

code_ctypes.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import sys
from ctypes import Structure, \
c_ulonglong, c_longlong, c_ushort, c_ubyte, c_char, c_int, \
CDLL, POINTER, \
create_string_buffer, get_errno, set_errno, cast

DT_DIR = 4
DT_REG = 8
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.char256 = c_char * 256

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 18/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

class LinuxDirent64(Structure):
_fields_ = [
("d_ino", c_ulonglong),
("d_off", c_longlong),
("d_reclen", c_ushort),
("d_type", c_ubyte),
("d_name", char256),
]

LinuxDirent64Ptr = POINTER(LinuxDirent64)

libc_dll = this_process = CDLL(None, use_errno=True)

# ALWAYS set argtypes and restype for functions, otherwise it's UB!!!
opendir = libc_dll.opendir
readdir = libc_dll.readdir
closedir = libc_dll.closedir

def get_dir_content(path):
ret = [path, list(), list()]
dir_stream = opendir(create_string_buffer(path.encode()))
if (dir_stream == 0):
print("opendir returned NULL (errno: {:d})".format(get_errno()))
return ret
set_errno(0)
dirent_addr = readdir(dir_stream)
while dirent_addr:
dirent_ptr = cast(dirent_addr, LinuxDirent64Ptr)
dirent = dirent_ptr.contents
name = dirent.d_name.decode()
if dirent.d_type & DT_DIR:
if name not in (".", ".."):
ret[1].append(name)
elif dirent.d_type & DT_REG:
ret[2].append(name)
dirent_addr = readdir(dir_stream)
if get_errno():
print("readdir returned NULL (errno: {:d})".format(get_errno()))
closedir(dir_stream)
return ret

def main():
print("{:s} on {:s}\n".format(sys.version, sys.platform))
root_dir = "root_dir"
entries = get_dir_content(root_dir)
print(entries)

if __name__ == "__main__":
main()

Notes:

It loads the three functions from libc (loaded in the current process) and calls them
(for more details check [SO]: How do I check whether a file exists without exceptions?
(@CristiFati's answer) - last notes from item #4.). That would place this approach very
close to the Python / C edge

LinuxDirent64 is the ctypes representation of struct dirent64 from [man7]: dirent.h(0P)

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
(so are the DT_ constants) from my machine: Ubtu 16 x64 (4.10.0-40-generic and
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 19/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

libc6-dev:amd64). On other flavors/versions, the struct definition might differ, and if

so, the ctypes alias should be updated, otherwise it will yield Undefined Behavior
It returns data in the os.walk 's format. I didn't bother to make it recursive, but
starting from the existing code, that would be a fairly trivial task

Everything is doable on Win as well, the data (libraries, functions, structs, constants,
...) differ

Output:

[cfati@cfati-ubtu16x64-0:~/Work/Dev/StackOverflow/q003207219]> ./code_ctypes.py
3.5.2 (default, Nov 12 2018, 13:43:14)
[GCC 5.4.0 20160609] on linux

['root_dir', ['dir2', 'dir1', 'dir3', 'dir0'], ['file1', 'file0']]

8. [ActiveState.Docs]: win32file.FindFilesW (Win specific)

Retrieves a list of matching filenames, using the Windows Unicode API. An

interface to the API FindFirstFileW/FindNextFileW/Find close functions.

>>> import os, win32file, win32con

>>> root_dir = "root_dir"
>>> wildcard = "*"
>>> root_dir_wildcard = os.path.join(root_dir, wildcard)
>>> entry_list = win32file.FindFilesW(root_dir_wildcard)
>>> len(entry_list) # Don't display the whole content as it's too long
8
>>> [entry[-2] for entry in entry_list] # Only display the entry names
['.', '..', 'dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'dir3', 'file0', 'file1']
>>>
>>> [entry[-2] for entry in entry_list if entry[0] &
win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY and entry[-2] not in (".", "..")] # Filter
entries and only display dir names (except self and parent)
['dir0', 'dir1', 'dir2', 'dir3']
>>>
>>> [os.path.join(root_dir, entry[-2]) for entry in entry_list if entry[0] &
(win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL | win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE)] # Only
display file "full" names
['root_dir\\file0', 'root_dir\\file1']

Notes:

win32file.FindFilesW is part of [GitHub]: mhammond/pywin32 - Python for

Windows (pywin32) Extensions, which is a Python wrapper over WINAPIs

The documentation link is from ActiveState, as I didn't find any PyWin32 official
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
documentation Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 20/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

9. Install some (other) third-party package that does the trick

Most likely, will rely on one (or more) of the above (maybe with slight
customizations)

Notes:

Code is meant to be portable (except places that target a specific area - which are
marked) or cross:

platform (Nix, Win, )

Python version (2, 3, )

Multiple path styles (absolute, relatives) were used across the above variants, to illustrate
the fact that the "tools" used are flexible in this direction
os.listdir and os.scandir use opendir / readdir / closedir ([MS.Docs]: FindFirstFileW
function / [MS.Docs]: FindNextFileW function / [MS.Docs]: FindClose function) (via
[GitHub]: python/cpython - (master) cpython/Modules/posixmodule.c)

win32file.FindFilesW uses those (Win specific) functions as well (via [GitHub]:

mhammond/pywin32 - (master) pywin32/win32/src/win32file.i)

_get_dir_content (from point #1.) can be implemented using any of these approaches
(some will require more work and some less)

Some advanced filtering (instead of just file vs. dir) could be done: e.g. the
include_folders argument could be replaced by another one (e.g. filter_func) which
would be a function that takes a path as an argument: filter_func=lambda x: True
(this doesn't strip out anything) and inside _get_dir_content something like: if not
filter_func(entry_with_path): continue (if the function fails for one entry, it will be
skipped), but the more complex the code becomes, the longer it will take to execute

Nota bene! Since recursion is used, I must mention that I did some tests on my laptop
(Win 10 x64), totally unrelated to this problem, and when the recursion level was reaching
values somewhere in the (990 .. 1000) range (recursionlimit - 1000 (default)), I got
StackOverflow :). If the directory tree exceeds that limit (I am not an FS expert, so I don't
know if that is even possible), that could be a problem.
I must also mention that I didn't try to increase recursionlimit because I have no
experience in the area (how much can I increase it before having to also increase the stack
at OS level), but in theory there will always be the possibility for failure, if the dir depth is
larger than the highest possible recursionlimit (on that machine)

The code samples are for demonstrative purposes only. That means that I didn't take into
account error handling (I don't think there's any try / except / else / finally block), so the
code is not robust (the reason is: to keep it as simple and short as possible). For
production, error handling should be added as well
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 21/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

Other approaches:

1. Use Python only as a wrapper

Everything is done using another technology

That technology is invoked from Python

The most famous flavor that I know is what I call the system administrator approach:

Use Python (or any programming language for that matter) in order to execute
shell commands (and parse their outputs)

Some consider this a neat hack

I consider it more like a lame workaround (gainarie), as the action per se is

performed from shell (cmd in this case), and thus doesn't have anything to do
with Python.

Filtering ( grep / findstr ) or output formatting could be done on both sides,

but I'm not going to insist on it. Also, I deliberately used os.system instead of
subprocess.Popen .

(py35x64_test)
E:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q003207219>"e:\Work\Dev\VEnvs\py35x64_test\Script
-c "import os;os.system(\"dir /b root_dir\")"
dir0
dir1
dir2
dir3
file0
file1

In general this approach is to be avoided, since if some command output format slightly
differs between OS versions/flavors, the parsing code should be adapted as well; not to
mention differences between locales).

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Mar 21, 2019 at 14:14 answered Jan 23, 2018 at 3:09
CristiFati
33.3k 9 46 71

I really liked adamk's answer, suggesting that you use glob() , from the module of the same
name. This allows you to have pattern matching with * s.
49
But as other people pointed out in the comments, glob() can get tripped up over
inconsistent slash directions. To help with that, I suggest you use the join() and
expanduser() functions in the os.path module, and perhaps the getcwd() function in the
os module, as well.

As examples:
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 22/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

from glob import glob

# Return everything under C:\Users\admin that contains a folder called wlp.

glob('C:\Users\admin\*\wlp')

The above is terrible - the path has been hardcoded and will only ever work on Windows
between the drive name and the \ s being hardcoded into the path.

from glob import glob

from os.path import join

# Return everything under Users, admin, that contains a folder called wlp.
glob(join('Users', 'admin', '*', 'wlp'))

The above works better, but it relies on the folder name Users which is often found on
Windows and not so often found on other OSs. It also relies on the user having a specific
name, admin .

from glob import glob

from os.path import expanduser, join

# Return everything under the user directory that contains a folder called wlp.
glob(join(expanduser('~'), '*', 'wlp'))

This works perfectly across all platforms.

Another great example that works perfectly across platforms and does something a bit
different:

from glob import glob

from os import getcwd
from os.path import join

# Return everything under the current directory that contains a folder called
wlp.
glob(join(getcwd(), '*', 'wlp'))

Hope these examples help you see the power of a few of the functions you can find in the
standard Python library modules.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 23, 2017 at 11:47 answered Jul 9, 2014 at 11:43
Community Bot ArtOfWarfare
1 1 19.3k 16 129 186

4 Extra glob fun: starting in Python 3.5, ** works as long as you set recursive = True . See the docs
here: docs.python.org/3.5/library/glob.html#glob.glob – ArtOfWarfare Jan 26, 2015 at 3:24

Join Stack
defOverflow to (find
list_files paththe
): best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.
# returns a list of names (with extension, without full path) of all files

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 23/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

39 # in folder path
files = []
for name in os.listdir(path):
if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, name)):
files.append(name)
return files

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Oct 7, 2014 at 18:30 answered Jun 10, 2014 at 16:16
Apogentus
6,041 4 31 32

If you are looking for a Python implementation of find, this is a recipe I use rather frequently:

25 from findtools.find_files import (find_files, Match)

# Recursively find all *.sh files in **/usr/bin**

sh_files_pattern = Match(filetype='f', name='*.sh')
found_files = find_files(path='/usr/bin', match=sh_files_pattern)

for found_file in found_files:

print found_file

So I made a PyPI package out of it and there is also a GitHub repository. I hope that someone
finds it potentially useful for this code.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 28, 2017 at 23:17 answered Apr 10, 2014 at 14:09
Peter Mortensen Yauhen Yakimovich
30k 21 100 124 13k 7 56 65

For greater results, you can use listdir() method of the os module along with a generator
(a generator is a powerful iterator that keeps its state, remember?). The following code works
15 fine with both versions: Python 2 and Python 3.

Here's a code:

import os

def files(path):
for file in os.listdir(path):
if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, file)):
yield file

for file in files("."):

print (file)

The listdir() method returns the list of entries for the given directory. The method
os.path.isfile() returns True if the given entry is a file. And the yield operator quits the
func but keeps its current state, and it returns only the name of the entry detected as a file. All
the above allows us to loop over the generator function.
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 24/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 17, 2019 at 9:23 answered Jan 9, 2019 at 10:11
Georgy Andy Jazz
10.3k 7 59 67 37.9k 13 109 179

Returning a list of absolute filepaths, does not recurse into subdirectories

11 L = [os.path.join(os.getcwd(),f) for f in os.listdir('.') if

os.path.isfile(os.path.join(os.getcwd(),f))]

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Dec 28, 2014 at 3:27 answered Jun 13, 2014 at 16:26
Cristian Ciupitu The2ndSon
19.3k 7 48 73 297 2 7

2 Note: os.path.abspath(f) would be a somewhat cheaper substitute for

os.path.join(os.getcwd(),f) . – ShadowRanger May 6, 2017 at 0:14

1 I'd be more efficient still if you started with cwd = os.path.abspath('.') , then used cwd instead
of '.' and os.getcwd() throughout to avoid loads of redundant system calls. – Martijn Pieters ♦
Dec 5, 2018 at 10:46

A wise teacher told me once that:

11 When there are several established ways to do something, none of them is good for
all cases.

I will thus add a solution for a subset of the problem: quite often, we only want to check
whether a file matches a start string and an end string, without going into subdirectories. We
would thus like a function that returns a list of filenames, like:

filenames = dir_filter('foo/baz', radical='radical', extension='.txt')

If you care to first declare two functions, this can be done:

def file_filter(filename, radical='', extension=''):

"Check if a filename matches a radical and extension"
if not filename:
return False
filename = filename.strip()
return(filename.startswith(radical) and filename.endswith(extension))

def dir_filter(dirname='', radical='', extension=''):

"Filter filenames in directory according to radical and extension"
if not dirname:
dirname = '.'
return [filename for filename in os.listdir(dirname)
if file_filter(filename, radical, extension)]

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 25/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

This solution could be easily generalized with regular expressions (and you might want to add
a pattern argument, if you do not want your patterns to always stick to the start or end of
the filename).

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Mar 24, 2019 at 7:17 answered Mar 24, 2019 at 7:07
fralau
2,741 2 25 38

import os
import os.path
10
def get_files(target_dir):
item_list = os.listdir(target_dir)

file_list = list()
for item in item_list:
item_dir = os.path.join(target_dir,item)
if os.path.isdir(item_dir):
file_list += get_files(item_dir)
else:
file_list.append(item_dir)
return file_list

Here I use a recursive structure.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Jul 18, 2018 at 13:44 answered Jun 19, 2018 at 12:03
Andrew Rohne pah8J
150 3 10 747 7 15

The same can be achieved just in one line with pathlib : filter(Path.is_file,
Path().rglob('*')) – Georgy May 17, 2019 at 9:37

Using generators

8 import os
def get_files(search_path):
for (dirpath, _, filenames) in os.walk(search_path):
for filename in filenames:
yield os.path.join(dirpath, filename)
list_files = get_files('.')
for filename in list_files:
print(filename)

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 17, 2017 at 15:35 answered Dec 2, 2016 at 7:01
shantanoo
3,579 1 23 36

THANKS! exactly what I needed. A lot of the answers at the top are outdated and not working with
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Python 3.9 :) – Wlad Oct 14, 2021 at 8:01 Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 26/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow

Another very readable variant for Python 3.4+ is using pathlib.Path.glob:

7 from pathlib import Path

folder = '/foo'
[f for f in Path(folder).glob('*') if f.is_file()]

It is simple to make more specific, e.g. only look for Python source files which are not symbolic
links, also in all subdirectories:

[f for f in Path(folder).glob('**/*.py') if not f.is_symlink()]

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 23, 2018 at 19:25 answered Mar 28, 2018 at 12:20
Peter Mortensen fhchl
30k 21 100 124 651 7 17

For Python 2:

4 pip install rglob

Then do

import rglob
file_list = rglob.rglob("/home/base/dir/", "*")
print file_list

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Feb 8, 2021 at 16:00 answered Oct 19, 2018 at 2:34
Peter Mortensen chris-piekarski
30k 21 100 124 1,008 8 6

3 When an external dep can be avoided, do it. What is the added value of using an external dependency
when all you need is already in the language? – Eric Mar 30, 2021 at 13:45

Here's my general-purpose function for this. It returns a list of file paths rather than filenames
since I found that to be more useful. It has a few optional arguments that make it versatile. For
3 instance, I often use it with arguments like pattern='*.txt' or subfolders=True .

import os
import fnmatch

def list_paths(folder='.', pattern='*', case_sensitive=False,

subfolders=False):
"""Return a list of the file paths matching the pattern in the specified
folder, optionally including files inside subfolders.
"""
Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
match = fnmatch.fnmatchcase if case_sensitive else fnmatch.fnmatch Sign up
answer theirs.walked = os.walk(folder) if subfolders else [next(os.walk(folder))]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 27/28
12/07/2022 19:38 python - How do I list all files of a directory? - Stack Overflow
return [os.path.join(root, f)
for root, dirnames, filenames in walked
for f in filenames if match(f, pattern)]

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Dec 7, 2017 at 20:10

MarredCheese
13.9k 7 79 80

I will provide a sample one liner where sourcepath and file type can be provided as input. The
code returns a list of filenames with csv extension. Use . in case all files needs to be returned.
3 This will also recursively scans the subdirectories.

[y for x in os.walk(sourcePath) for y in glob(os.path.join(x[0], '*.csv'))]

Modify file extensions and source path as needed.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Dec 12, 2017 at 5:30 answered Dec 11, 2017 at 17:51
Vinodh Krishnaraju
147 1 7

1 If you are going to use glob , then just use glob('**/*.csv', recursive=True) . No need to
combine this with os.walk() to recurse ( recursive and ** are supported since Python 3.5).
– Martijn Pieters ♦ Dec 5, 2018 at 11:09

dircache is "Deprecated since version 2.6: The dircache module has been removed in Python 3.0."

2 import dircache
list = dircache.listdir(pathname)
i = 0
check = len(list[0])
temp = []
count = len(list)
while count != 0:
if len(list[i]) != check:
temp.append(list[i-1])
check = len(list[i])
else:
i = i + 1
count = count - 1

print temp

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 17, 2019 at 20:30 answered Jul 25, 2012 at 10:25
Georgy shaji
10.3k 7 59 67 129 1 3

Join Stack Overflow to find the best answer to your technical question, help others
Sign up
answer theirs.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207219/how-do-i-list-all-files-of-a-directory 28/28